Weekend of Relaxation

In a way, I feel like I experienced my last summer weekend, even though summer technically goes until September. We were able to go to Wimberley for the weekend to spend time with grandparents, aunt Jeanette, and uncle Bud. To me, it seems like my final summer weekend because I didn't have any papers to check, lessons to plan, or homework to complete. 

We packed everything up Friday after work and hit the road. Iivana wanted to drive, but Justin wouldn't let her.

We needed some dinner, so we decided to pick up a GF pizza from Boston's restaurant. 

We're classy people and ate devoured the pizza in the truck on the way up. As you can see, I couldn't even control my hunger enough to wait to take a picture of our barbecue chicken pizza on gluten free crust.

The crust was rather thin, but had a great dough flavor. The toppings of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, red onions, chicken, and cheese were awesome! Between the two of us, we finished the entire small pizza. The pizza was less expensive than the ones we get from Little Aussie.

We didn't arrive until about 8:00 p.m. but had enough time to chat the night away, play a few games, and enjoy some chocolate wine. Jeanette and Bud introduced us to a new quite possible favorite red wine, Apothic Red. It's not too sweet, not too dry. It's a good in between red wine for mine and Justin's palette. They even gave us a bottle for home!

Saturday morning Justin went golfing and I was able to sleep in. In the afternoon we experienced our first game of nine pin bowling. <--Read this link to see all the rules, because I know I won't explain them all.

Do you see the pin setter, the actual person?

The captain who sits in the chair, picks which person will bowl next. It's my turn!

The score is kept on chalk boards. If you find my name and see all the "x"s they aren't strikes! All the pins must be knocked down to score points. If you don't get them all, then the next person on the team has to knock them down.

But if you keep the red pin up, you get 12 points!

Saturday night grandma made us a naturally GF meal that consisted of baked potatoes, ham, green beans, and cottage cheese! For dessert I made some GF rhubarb crunch. I followed my mom's recipe, but used some GF replacements.

 

Here's the recipe for a 9 x 9 pan.

• 3/4 cup of oatmeal (I used Bob's Red Mill gluten free oats)
• 1 cup of flour (I used a mix of GF flours I had stored in my fridge. Any all purpose GF mix will work).
• 1/2 cup of butter melted
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

You mix these all together. Use half of the mixture for the crust, just press it to cover the bottom of the pan. Save the other half of the mix for the top.

Then cut up rhubarb and fill until the pan it's pretty full.

On the stovetop, mix:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Thicken on the stove and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, then turn off. Pour the sugar mixture over the rhubarb. Then sprinkle the rest of the oatmeal mixture on the top.

Bake in a glass pan at 350 degrees for 40 min. (375 if using metal)

Iivana loves the country! She's free to roam and examine everything.

I think she had a little too much fun though. Her pad stops (carpal pads) sort of blistered from running really fast and stopping quickly. We've applied some neosporin to help them heal.

All three of us had a weekend full of relaxation and fun!